Deaf, blind, 3-legged and even 2-legged dogs can lead happy doggie lives.

San Bernardino County Animal Care and Control (California) officers received a report of an injured dog last week. What they found was a 6-year-old male Chihuahua with no tags or microchip.

The dog had not been injured, but he was missing most of his right front and left rear legs. They think this is due to a birth defect since he runs naturally as if this is the way he has run his whole life.

Years ago I saw a TV documentary about a dog on a farm who had an unfortunate encounter with some farm equipment and lost a front and an opposing rear leg. They rushed him to a veterinarian who saved his life, but they were concerned with his quality of life since he had lost a front and rear leg. Would he even be able to walk?

Not to worry.

We had to see to believe. Using his tail for balance he was able to run very fast on only two legs.

If no one claims the San Bernardino County dog, he will be available for adoption.

Pet the lamb was one of twin lambs born in the Scottish highlands last April. Because she was having trouble surviving, owner Mairi Mackenzie brought the her into the warmth of the home.

The pack of Border Collies who lived in the home took her under their wing paws and now she thinks she is a sheep dog. She goes on daily walks with the dogs and even wags her tail. She leaps around in what must be her version of a dog cavorting.

Pet and Dice, the oldest Collie, have an amazing connection, often going on long walks together. The MacKensies have kept lambs before, but this is the first time they’ve seen a bond between the two species.

Is Pet a dog in sheep’s clothing? I have to wonder if Pet will try to herd her barnyard relatives. Source

Five-week-old Digby the Chihuahua was found shivering between two trash bins when he was brought into an RSPCA centre in London. There he bonded with Nero, a Neapolitan Mastiff who weighs over 130 pounds. Quickly they became inseparable.

Nero belongs to the centre director Anna White. Digby was terrified when he first arrived, but when he spotted Nero, it was love at first sniff. Gentle giant Nero eats 4 pounds of food a day, four times the weight of 1 pound Digby.

Speaking about the unlikely friendship, Anna said: "It was as if the little fellow took on Nero as his personal minder!" Source

We don’t know exactly when and how in prehistory the wild flesh eating wolf became our best friend, but the best guess is that our friendship started between 18,800 and 32,000 years ago.

By selective breeding, our long ago ancestors developed dogs in a variety of sizes and configurations to serve a variety of functions as together we developed a civilization.

Dogs were bred for fitness and function, not profit and ribbons.

Historically the Neapolitan Mastiff lineage can be traced back to the dogs of war used to fight in the Roman army and for entertainment in the arenas, fighting humans and wild animals. After the fall of Rome they worked on estates and farms in Italy as a defender of humans and property.

They are large, powerful animals fiercely loyal to their families. They are not inclined to go hunting or roaming. Their fearsome, imposing, some even say ugly, appearance is enough to frighten off intruders so they can be gentle, protective family dogs.

The Chihuahua, on the other hand, has never had a real job. When most people lived on farms, the Chihuahua was too tiny to be much help guarding, herding, hunting, pulling carts, scaring off intruders, or killing varmints.

It wasn’t until the 1960s when people had moved to cities that Chihuahuas became popular. Sadly, because of their cuteness they were photographed with many different celebrities. They starred in movies and became TV personalities. They soon became a fashion fad, resulting in an oversupply of them in certain parts of the country.

The breed which originated in ancient Mexico, is believed to be descended from the Techichi, a dog used as a pet in Mayan times. There is some evidence that the prehistoric ancestors entered North America from Asia to Alaska and down to Mexico. When the Aztecs became the ruling tribe in Mexico, they used the Chihuahua as a companion and in religious ceremonies.

Chihuahuas were believed to be sacred and they have never forgotten this.

Cakes with a dog theme, made by professional and student decorators, were on display at Chocolatefest 2015 at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Chocolatefest is an annual month long celebration of chocolate which as we all now know has been found to have remarkable health benefits as outlined in a study on Web MD. Chocolate can be toxic to dogs so humans can eat chocolate around them without feeling guilty.

Anyone interested in a cake can bid in a silent auction or make an immediate purchase of $50. Proceeds go to the Susquehanna Service Dogs program. More of these impossible cute cakes are pictured here.

The Golden Poodle award goes to Dean Parlett, a truck driver in England who found a stray Poodle, fell in love with her and then made a heartbreaking 300 mile trip to return her to her owner.

But there was a happy ending.

Contrasted with the Neanderthal award to Dave and Trisha Watson from South Carolina who found a Chihuahua and made the owners, a family with five children, go through an expensive 2½ year legal battle to finally get her back.

The Lizard Brain award goes to the couple who applied for credit to buy a $3000 Bulldog puppy from a pet store. When the application was rejected, they stole an iPad and were caught on the security camera.

A young couple in a pet store in Texas fell in love with an English Bulldog puppy. They are seen on surveillance video playing with the puppy and talking for a while with a store employee.

Then they filled out a financial application to buy the puppy for $3000.

OK. That isn’t what made them the world’s dumbest criminals although that is pretty dumb--$3000 for a pet store puppy that almost certainly came from a puppy mill and will undoubtedly have expensive lifelong health problems.

The application was denied.

So, they seemed to say, if we can’t have the puppy, let’s just take something else. The man is seen on the video reaching for the store’s iPad a few times. Then his wife steps in, snatches it, puts it in her purse and they leave quickly.

However… in filling out the credit application all their personal and contact information was now in the store’s computer. The manager called them and the man promised to return it if the police would not get involved. Not surprisingly he didn’t return it.

The case was turned over to the sheriff’s department which is investigating it. Story and video

Someone apparently told the GoDaddy people that cute puppy ads were the way to get big bangs for their bucks. So they set about making a 30 second commercial that seems to be purposely designed to produce frightening images and negative feelings from viewers.

First Buddy the pup falls out of the bed of a pickup. Then he makes his way through more obstacles that could kill him. This sequence has all the humor of a puppy walking along a busy highway.

Finally Buddy reaches home where the greedy puppy mill owner is happy to see him since she has sold him online from her GoDaddy website.

"Ship him out."

I can’t imagine that this commercial will make people feel warm and glowy or draw a whole lot of customers.

And GoDaddy got the word from animal lovers.

Blake Irving, the CEO of GoDaddy, went to Twitter to say that the company got the message and they pulled the ad. He tweeted:

Thank you @Animalrescuers for the candid feedback. What should have been a fun and funny ad clearly missed the mark and we will not air it.